Houghlinos

"Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam… And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva… So tweasure your wuv." ~Impressive Clergyman from "Princess Bride".

Yesterday Jared and I celebrated 16 years of "mawage" and "tru wuv". I really did feel like a Princess Bride being sealed for time and all eternity in the incredible San Diego, CA Temple.

Our anniversary last year fell into the "black hole" that was the 10 months when I didn't blog. But it is definitely noteworthy now.

May 7th was a Monday last year and I was working at the office that day. I came home early though so Jared and I could go on an anniversary bike ride together. (We were training for a ride to the coast--55 miles for me and 80 for him and I needed all the bum-training I could get).

Jared said he told the boys they were in charge of dinner because this was our anniversary and we weren't going to cook. I was a little nervous about leaving them for 2 hours and with the assignment to cook. This was, after all the witching hour, which is hard for me many days with grumpy kids. Plus, JJ (who was 9 months at the time) was so mobile that I worried about him being underfoot with the stove on. Jake assured me the stove wasn't going to be used and that did make me feel a little better. We had family prayers and then Jared and I left.

As we headed south on 209th at 4:30pm in 80 degree heat, I soon started to regret it. 209th was crazy with traffic and there's no real shoulder. One truck flew past us scaring me by its noise and how close it was. If the passenger reached their arm out the window, they could have touched us. It was insane. Going west on Farmington was no better. It was going to be a long ride. We went north on Hillsboro Highway. We were going to go into Cornelius via Tongue Road, but I had ridden on Saturday with Wes and Bev for 15-18 miles and this was the quickest turn around for me yet. My butt hurt, it was hot and my legs felt like lead. Not to mention I still had a small nagging feeling in the back of my head about the kids.

We decided to just go straight on Hillsboro Highway into Hillsboro. I had never been on that road before and oh my! That was some scary riding with the traffic and lack of shoulder and the pavement was rough and sketchy at best in so many spots. I yelled up at Jared and told him that I didn't like this route one bit. But I stayed steady. And prayed a lot.

We finally made it to downtown Hillsboro. We went the back way to avoid the 3 lanes of traffic. Riding in town doesn't really bother me because a) there's usually a decent bike lane and b) the vehicles don't move as fast as they do on the country roads.

I braced myself for the worst on 209th. I'd never been on it before as a rider, but I know how bad it is because I've had to slow down for riders in my car. The road is narrow and there's no bike lane. I did some mighty praying to Heavenly Father. By His divine hand there weren't that many cars going south on 209th when we were and the ones that did, went far around us or drove by slowly. We made it home by 6pm after having gone 18 miles.

When we got back to our street and the house was in view, I was relieved to see it still standing and the absence of emergency vehicles out front (I have a very overactive imagination!) Cooper met us at the garage door and said we couldn't come into the house because there was a delicate operation underway. I didn't care so long as I could sit and drink some water. We got the three younger kids and sat on the lawn. Cooper came out a little bit later and entertained us with charades and then he escorted us back into the house through the kitchen. Our eyes had to be closed but before we did that, I noticed the dining room and kitchen were dark. There was also a makeshift door (a sheet tacked up with pins) in the doorway between the kitchen and dining room.

Once in the dining room, we opened our eyes and there before us was the dining room table set beautifully for two with my lighthouse plates and my grandma's goblets filled with orange juice.

Under the direction of Chef Jake, the kids made us a lovely candlelight dinner. Cooper was our waiter. Complete with his best French accent, he warmly welcomed us to the Italian restaurant Houghlinos for "fast, fancy and romantic food" :) He went on to explain that this exclusive restaurant is only open once a year, as well. Even Calvin appeared with his hands behind his back, his head cocked to the side and asked "How may I be of service?" It was super cute.

Jake took the kids outside in the backyard to eat their dinner so we "love birds" could eat alone and it was absolutely precious. Jake made homemade pizza...meaning the dough was baked from scratch. The recipe is enough for two pizza crusts, but even with some doughy parts to the crust, and Monterrey Jake instead of mozzarella as the cheese, it was delicious! I told the waiter to give our compliments to the chef.

Once we finished our pizza, we were brought root beer floats for dessert. Yum!

Jake looked pretty weary. He basically did the babysitting and the cooking and table setting and atmosphere setting. We were so impressed. He's made that pizza only once by himself with me supervising. I told Jake, in Jared's presence, that with the exception of the day I got married, this was the BEST May 7th ev.er! I asked Jared not to be offended. He smiled and said he wasn't and told Jake this would probably end up in my journal and it did...plus the blog :)

I had forgotten that I graduated from college and Jared drove 19 hours through the night from Illinois to be with me that day AND I found out I was pregnant with Jake all on May 7, 1999. And yet, this anniversary dinner meant more to me than all of those things combined.

Cruise Flashback: 2nd Day at Sea

Monday, Feb. 27, 2012, marked our second full day at sea. We woke around 7am, which in our world, is sleeping in. I threw back the curtains to assess the weather for the day and took a picture of the sunrise from our balcony.

It was amazing the difference one day of non-stop travel can do. I felt like we were already in a whole new world compared to day before. The seas were calmer, the skies were truly clearing and it was warm and humid. Caribbean, here we come!!

Jared got dressed for his work out and I threw some clothes on so we could head to the Windjammer Café on deck 11 (5 decks up!) for breakfast. We forgot to keep track of Jared's steps with the pedometer, but I assure you, there were A LOT of them! I don't think our quads ever stopped burning when we climbed the stairs. There were 24-30 stairs (divided into two...you go up one set to a landing, then turn and go up the next set) in between each deck. So just going from deck 6 to deck 11, for breakfast, we climbed 120 to 150 steps!

Which is how I could justify my breakfast :) Breakfast is my FAVORITE meal. But I love any meal I don't have to cook which made this cruise even more of a dream for me. Especially since it wasn't fast food like most vacations we take.

I had scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, fruit, cereal and 2 waffles. Jared had the same, minus the waffles. I loved sitting by the huge windows. I still cannot get over how vast the oceans are. Water, water e.ver.y.where!

After breakfast, we went up to the top deck to get a view. Then we laid out on some chairs by the pool, until Jared had to go to his class. While he was spinning, I tried to find the rock wall, but it was closed. I went back to our cabin to shower and change.

When we bought our cruise tickets several months prior, we booked a massage for each of us. My brilliant plan was to get one on the first day at sea at the beginning of the week and then a second one on the last day at sea on our way back to port. Apparently, it's not such a brilliant idea because I couldn't get one until Thursday night, when we left Mexico. Everyone else had the same plan. I was disappointed, of course, that I couldn't secure one sooner, but was still grateful for the one I would be getting and it gave me something to look forward to after all the excitement at the ports.

Before Jared came back from his workout, he checked on our massage appointments. I feared mine was right during dinner on Thursday. It was at 6:45pm, so that's about an hour after dinner starts on our most formal night. It would be doable.

Jared then presented me with an appointment card for ANOTHER massage! For that very night at 8pm! He said "Happy Anniversary!" (Hel-loooo! The cruise was for our anniversary :) I couldn't believe it! They had an opening and he got it for me. He used some of the money we had credited back from the cancellation of our zip line excursion. SO sweet!!

After Jared got cleaned up, we went looking for the rock wall. (Some of these things are hard to remember how to get to.) This time it was open. I stood there and watched a lady do it. She was like Spiderman. Quick and lithe. I started to change my mind about doing it. Until the handsome young Scotsman with a fantastic accent holding her ropes asked if I was going to try. I admitted I wasn't sure. He told me I should do it because I was on vacation. He was very convincing. I think the accent had something to do with it :) So I slowly went to sign the waiver and get the equipment. And who should show up but Jesse and Jenney, our tablemates. Jenney went first and did great. Jared took pictures for them.

Jesse and I started up at the same time. I told the Scotsman, who had my ropes, that I'd never done this before. He said he hadn't either. He gave me a couple of pointers, though, from all of his observations and I was off.

 

 

The first three or four climbs were okay.

I think I lifted myself two more times after that, but my arms were shaky and my right hand was killing me. In my attempt to get in shape after having a baby 6 months prior, I had injured my hand/wrist while lifting weights. I was diagnosed just a couple weeks earlier as having De Quervain syndrome, also known as gamer's thumb, mother's wrist or mommy thumb. It's inflammation of the fluid-filled sheath that surrounds a tendon and in this case, inflammation of the sheath or tunnel that surrounds two tendons that control movement of the thumb. Basically it's an overuse injury that causes pain and tenderness and swelling over the thumb side of the wrist and causes difficulty in gripping.

 

 



So all things considered, I guess I won't be too hard on myself that I didn't make it to the top. I didn't realize I was that "close" to the bell (Jared told me he thought I was going to make it), but I just couldn't do anymore. So down I came. Not bad for my first try. I actually really enjoyed it!

 

 

 

After that we went to the spa to see if by chance I could change my Thursday massage time later so I could stay for all of dinner. They moved me to 8pm. I'm SO lucky!!

 

We had lunch at the Windjammer and got to walk one deck down for it :) I had curried chicken, rice, pasta and beef schnitzel. Yeah, totally random, but deee-lish. Jared had curried chicken, rice, sweet and sour pork and a salad.

 

After lunch, we went to the pool to lay out for an hour before going to the Ice Odyssey show. It was WARM out there--hotter than the tanning beds. Thankfully, we had the tanning edge on our side, plus our SPF 50 sunblock so we didn't toast ourselves...which is more than I can say for many others.

 

We walked down and across the ship to go to the ice show at 2pm. We grabbed a yummy "no cost" deli sandwich at another café on our way there. Here's a little trivia: Apparently "Studio B" on our ship (Voyager), is the first ice rink to hit the high seas.

 

It was a small rink, but impressive enough for a cruise ship, and there were a LOT of performers on that rink...many Olympic ice skaters from all over the world. The lack of space they had in which to perform took me back to my days in the high school swing choir. We did many performances (singing and dancing) in a variety of different settings. Some of which were very cramped. Our director would just smile knowingly and bring his fingertips together at an angle, creating what we knew stood for a capital 'A'. Which meant: Adapt people. Quit your whining. Make it work.

 

 

And that's what these ice skaters did. I'm not sure I could tell you what the theme of the show was. It was just fun to see them do impressive maneuvers and tricks.

 

While we were on that side of the ship, we decided we'd try looking again for our photographs. We had to come up with a plan for combing through the walls of pictures. I would take one side and Jared would take the other and we'd move in the same direction. You could waste some serious time if you didn't have a route to follow. But it was to no avail. You'd think with my red hair it would be easy enough to spot us. Not so.

 

Time for an afternoon nap! On our way back to the cabin, we grabbed a super yummy éclair at the same café on the Promenade (deck 5) where we had gotten the sandwich before the show. I had to restrain myself from getting another. Good thing we were taking the stairs!

 

We played a game of Quiddler (a spelling game) and I won by 3 points. For those of you who know my obsession with spelling, believe it or not, Jared usually beats me when we play one-on-one. It was fun that this game was so close. Then we rested and got ready for dinner.

 

Jesse and Jenney told us at the rock wall that morning that they were going to skip dinner in the dining room to go to Johnny Rockets instead. Mike and Buddy weren't there again either. (Maybe we were just too young and rambunctious for them--we certainly hoped they were having a good time wherever they were). Todd and Jen were there though so we dined with them. They informed us that Jesse had taken 3rd place in the Sexiest Man Contest earlier that afternoon. (He reminds me of Deeks for those of you who watch NCIS: Los Angeles :)

 

For some reason I wasn't feeling too good at dinner and consequently nothing sounded appetizing. Fortunately, I was able to eat some pasta.

 

After dinner, we swung by the Excursion Desk and booked the beach and gourmet lunch activity for Jamaica the next day. When we got back to the cabin, we changed into our bathing suits. I headed up for my massage and Jared made plans to meet me there with the towels and we would go soak in the hot tub afterwards.

 

Amy from the UK gave me my massage. It was awesome (though Jared's massages reign supreme!) I was so relaxed, even as she worked on my sore, tight muscles in my shoulders, neck and back. It was a fast hour!

 

Jared and I found the only hot tub that was open and it was vacant of people. This surprised me. Not that I minded having it to ourselves. I just thought we'd have to wait or join a group already there. Then my husband reminded ignorant me that this was about the time of day when people like to drink and party. I must be old or boring or both. Because I was ready for bed! The hot tub was warm, not hot--the way I like it--but it worked.

Cruise Flashback: 1st Day at Sea

Sunday, February 26th, we awoke suddenly to the phone ringing. It was 6:30am. I freaked out--something's wrong at home! Who else would be calling us--and at this hour? I said, "Uh oh" before answering it. The voice on the other end said, "Your breakfast is ready, may I bring it up?" Oh, sure. Phew...

The cabin had been so dark when we went to bed the night before. We were obviously "rocked and lulled" to sleep because we slept like babies. However, once I was up, I could tell we were no longer on the river and that we were in choppy waters. I went out on the balcony and saw that we were in a little bit of a storm. We later heard from others on lower decks that the waves were cresting at about 20 feet. Whoa!

The boat was really rocking. So much so that I decided to finally put on my "sea patch." Jared had put his on the night before because he didn't want to take any chances. I decided to wait. But Sunday morning did it for me. I don't know if I get seasick or not, but didn't want to find out on the first and very possibly the last cruise we'd be on.

For breakfast, I had cereal, a super thin piece of toast (just slightly thicker than a piece of paper--I didn't know bread could be that thin) and a banana. Jared had granola, fruit and yogurt. And then he got ready for his spinning class up on the 12th or 13th deck. While he did that, I decided to go to the LaScala Theater on deck 3 for the shopping show. I got to sit right up on the front row. I had heard that you feel the rocking of the boat less, the lower you go on the ship. However, the curtain on the stage was swaying back and forth, right about my eye level. That alone made me super dizzy and I had to force myself to look away and not think about it.

Ross was our shopping guide. Most of the presentation was on jewelry and watches and the crazy deals you can get because all of the middle men are eliminated. I didn't realize some people go on cruises JUST for the shopping. That's so crazy to me since shopping is not my thing. Obviously I didn't come to buy jewelry but the fact that I could get pearl earrings and a necklace for $30-$60 was very intriguing. I was also interested in buying some diamond stud earrings because one of my children accidentally lost one of my studs that my parents gave me for my 22nd birthday.

I made out like a bandit while sitting on the front row (the best place to be to catch the prizes tossed into the audience apparently.) I got a bamboo necklace from Cariloha and a t-shirt that is super soft (made from bamboo). It had a pirate skull and skeleton on it. It looked to be the perfect size for Calvin :) I also got some chili chocolate tossed my way (that I later shared with my Sunday School class back home). We were given maps of each port and I did walk away with a better idea of how to navigate the shops for maximized souvenir shopping.

After the show was over, I went back to the room to meet Jared. I went out to the balcony again to check the weather. It was starting to clear up. Yay!

 

 

We left to go get tickets to the ice show for Monday but they weren't going to be available until 4:30pm. So we went to the Carmen Room (deck 3 of the dining room) at noon for lunch.

I was feeling off. Not like I was going to throw up or anything. Just off. We had to walk the entire length of the boat to get to the dining room. I walked as if I were drunk. I figured I was probably hungry too, which didn't help my head.

We were seated off to the side, near the window and were joined by another older couple from Wisconsin. He was here for the big poker tournament which I had no clue was even happening on the ship! Apparently people come on cruises JUST for poker tournaments as well.

Jared had a steak sandwich, I had spaghetti and meatballs. Although mine should have been called spaghetti and meat-boulders. The 2 meatballs were the size of my fist! I could only eat half of one. I felt a little better after eating, but felt tired too. Thanks to our vantage point by the window we saw lightning and heard thunder! That was enough to get me to my feet. We excused ourselves from lunch and went to go watch the weather, but the door to go out on the open deck was locked :(

So we went back to our stateroom and napped for a few hours. Divine!! I also had a little guilt about it being Sunday and not attending church, so I studied my next Sunday School lesson I had brought with me.

Jared left at 4:30 to try and secure tickets to the ice show (and he did) while I got ready for our first formal dinner.

We both had the shrimp cocktail and shaved cantaloupe for our appetizer. I had the prime rib and baked potato. Jared had the roasted duck. And we all had lots of yummy bread. We didn't see Mike and Buddy that night, but the six of us had very lively conversations. Every one of  us got the strawberry cheesecake for dessert. It was delicious. I don't normally like cheesecake but this wasn't heavy or dense. It was super light.

After dinner, we headed down to the photography place to find the several pictures of us that had been taken of us already. We couldn't find our "Welcome Aboard" picture (it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack...walls and walls of pictures with the same backdrop) but we did find our first dinner picture. Not bad. But not worth $60 either (or even $20 for an 8x10).

When we got back to our stateroom this is what we found on our neatly made bed.

Omygosh!! Is that the cutest little towel elephant you've ever seen?? It made me so giddy, I had to have a picture taken with it!

The main paper on the bed is the Cruise Compass which outlines every event happening on the boat from sun up to sun down the following day. It tells of important things to know like where we are at the beginning of the day, times of the sunrise and sunset, the forecast, our coordinates, how many miles we anticipate traveling, dinner dress suggesting for dining, etc.

We changed for the night and tried to turn in early. Plus, we had to move our watches ahead 1 hour due to the crossing of time zones.

We noticed there was voicemail message waiting for us. What now? We hadn't ordered room service. Turns out our zipline/kayaking excursion in Jamaica on Tuesday was cancelled due to operational issues. But our money was credited back. That was actually our most expensive excursion at $125 a piece. The ship had a channel on TV that only highlighted the different excursions you could do in each port. So we watched that to see what sparked our interest, but nothing jumped out at us. The one thing that looked the most appealing was the "beach excursion and gourmet lunch" for $49 each. So that's what we decided we would do. We couldn't wait to hit that white sandy beach!

Spelling B-E-E

Last Tuesday, Jake participated in his school spelling bee. I was imagining kids lined up across the front of the room with a teacher giving one word to the first student. If they spelled it correctly, that student retained their place in line. If not, that person would be out and the next in line would have a chance to spell it.

Kind of like this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8jxmwws5z8&feature=share&list=PLGVpxD1HlmJ_jJsbKpbBWG5rrkWq8Wx4Q

Except that it wasn't that way at all. It was a paper/pencil test. Jake said there were about four ties. He thinks he did pretty good among a room of about 30 other students.

Later that week, Jake was sitting in his Language Arts class when the principal came into his class. He asked which students in there had participated in the spelling bee a few days prior. Jake and one other girl raised their hands.

Mr. Brown (principal of Brown Middle School :) presented Jake with a certificate that said:

 

Brown Middle School

SPELLING BEE 2ND

PLACE WINNER

JACOB HOUGH

April 9, 2013

 

 

Not shabby at all!!! He gets his spelling strength from his mom :) (Whether I realize it or not, I always edit everything I read looking for grammar and spelling errors. A blessing and a curse, actually.)

 

We're so proud of Jake. And I'm proud of his feelings about the experience. He's definitely disappointed that he didn't get to represent the school at the District Level but for not having any special training or preparation for this, he was proud of what he did accomplish. He went for it and did his best. I believe he was one-upped by an 8th grade girl :)

 

 



Crashed

Due to a series of unexpected errands this afternoon, we drove around town for a little over an hour. When we got home and I unloaded the kids, I realized poor Karcyn had fallen asleep. I sometimes forget about her because she's in the way back and mild mannered to begin with--compared to the 3 brothers who are between us.

I unbuckled her from her car seat and gently woke her up so she could go inside.

I grabbed the bags from the burb and had to finish corralling the three older boys, who got distracted with an activity in the front yard.

When I finally walked into the house 1 minute later, this is what I found:

Karcyn.

Crashed.

Less than 5 feet from the garage door.

She looks pretty comfy.

I'm a wee bit jealous, in fact.

What's wrong with this message?

On Friday, our former bishop and neighbor, OJ Hansen, retired from his job of 34 years. As friends and ward members, a good 20 of us gathered at Red Robin after the Priesthood session last night to celebrate with him. His job required him to travel A LOT! His wife, Vickie, was alone, more than she wasn't. In fact, about a month ago, the little kids and I ran into them out on a walk. I about died when I saw OJ with her.

As a gift, I had purchased him a gift card for a dinner out at a restaurant of his choice. I also got him a retirement card, that I signed while Jared was at the session.

This is more or less what I wrote:

Wow! 34 years--that's amazing!! Congratulations! Now that you have all this extra time, take your wife out to dinner. And maybe we can go on some walks together.

Love,
Jenn and Houghlings

Did you catch my "mistake"? O.my.gosh. I am just thanking my lucky stars for my OCD-ness, that I actually went back and proofread my message. When I discovered my error, I about fell off my chair in embarrassment. I actually felt the heat rise in my face even with no one else around me at the time.

I had unintentionally solicited the Bishop to go on walks with me! That is NOT what I had meant but it was so mortifying to see what my suggestion COULD mean. I panicked as I tried to figure out how to remedy this without destroying the card all together.

So I went back and put an editing caret in between "we" and "can" and wrote "four" above it so that it now read, "And maybe we ^four^ can go on some walks together." Not 100% fixed especially because it wouldn't hide the mistake, but better than had been.

Of course, my conscience required I had to confess my innocent slip-up to Jared, Vickie and OJ. But we all got a good laugh (several, in fact) over it, my face turning deeper shades of red than my hair the whole night. Ahhh, the memories.

Interrupted prayer

At our house, for the last 10 years (since an existence of a thing called "siblings") our kids battle to say prayers. Seriously, they all but throw fists over it. I guess it's a good thing that they all want to pray, but it seems really ironic to have a spirit of contention in our home when we're trying to avoid that very thing through our prayers. And with the several times we pray during the day (morning family prayer, breakfast prayer, lunch prayer, dinner prayer, evening family prayer--5 minimum) this really shouldn't be a problem, right? Wrong-O.

After we've tried going in a certain orders (youngest to oldest, oldest to youngest, a certain day of the week, etc.) with no real success, we finally told them that Dad will be the one to decide who prays. Yet despite this "administrative policy" a few of them continue to ask and beg to pray. Even after Jared has assigned someone to pray (often times the child who asked to pray first), there usually remains a disgruntled child or two who we have wait a good 30-45 seconds for to stop grumbling so we can proceed. Nowadays, JJ is the first one to "fold his arms" and look around expectantly waiting for the prayer to begin and time is of the essence!

Last night, I picked up a couple of pizzas for dinner, while Jared and Jake were at the General Priesthood session, and gathered the little kids around for the dinner prayer.

I said, "Okay, Karcyn. Say the prayer, please."

She obediently got reverent and began her prayer, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and for the--wait!!"

She startled us by her abrupt halt to the prayer. I thought something was wrong.

"What??"

"You mean I actually got to say the prayer without having to ask??" she clarified incredulously.

"Yes, Karcyn."

"Wow...okay. We can pray now."